Downed a Merriams

[Doug]

After being skunked the past two years and only getting a jake the year before that, I finally scored a mature bird here in Idaho.  I changed things up a bit this year.  In addition to moving to a new area about 2 1/2 hours from home, I also took on a hunting partner - a co-worker who never hunted turkey before, but has much hunting experience in Maine and here in the west.

We went and scouted the new area about 10 days before season opening and saw two gobblers in the general area.  We were near a wildlife management area and were told that there would be a lot of hunters both on and around the WMA on opening week.  Opening day was Monday and we arrived to set up camp Friday afternoon.  After we got camp set up, the wind started and the temperatures dropped.  Saturday was terrible - 30 mph winds and high temps in the high 30s.  Turns out, this is the type of weather we would have the whole trip.

Opening day dawned clear, cold and a bit less windy than the weekend had been.  It appeared that we had the entire area to ourselves.  There is a LOT of land out here and it's tough to narrow down where the turkeys are roosting.  By opening day, we still didn't know, so we split up.  I spent the morning walking along slowly, calling once in awhile and listening.  Didn't hear a single bird. 

My plan for the early afternoon was to find a warm, sunny spot to set up in and call for a few hours.  There was a particular area where we had previously seen/heard gobblers between noon and 3pm.  I was set up in the sun by 11am.  I'd call about every half hour.  I didn't hear anything until about 1pm when I heard a sickly gobble out in front of me inside of 100 yards.  That was followed pretty quickly by a good gobble.  I quickly got my GoPro camera recording and waited.

I didn't hear another gobble for several minutes, but caught movement on my extreme left.  I saw the red head right away and knew it was legal, but didn't know what size he was.  With the weather being what it was, I wasn't about to be too picky - remembering that I hadn't shot a turkey the previous two years.  He gobbled once and appeared to be heading away from me and soon would be over a small knoll.  I didn't waste too much time and put him down.  18 3/4 lbs, 7 3/4" beard - smallest mature gobbler I ever shot, but my personal best here in Idaho.

Here he is in all his glory


One of the views we had one morning and yeah, if that looks cold, it was


Here is the video.  With the GoPro, you can't zoom in, so unless you look real close, you may never see the bird until after I shoot, best you'll see is a little bit of movement.  I also had the totally sealed enclosure on the camera, so the sound isn't real great, but you can hear a gobble at some point..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vt-84XbcuZc

My buddy snapped a photo of me with the bird back at camp, but he hasn't sent it to me yet (been almost two weeks.....)

We weren't able to get into any more birds and ended up coming home Wednesday night.  That Friday, I decided to go with my second tag and check out a couple of my favorite spots closer to home.  The first spot I got to was one where I had spent a lot of time the past couple of years and hadn't heard a gobble.  Well, within 15 minutes of arriving, I heard and saw a gobbler and was then nearly constantly working 2-3 different birds for the next 6 hours.  I couldn't get one to commit and come all the way in, but man, was it ever fun!

[alloutdoors]

Congrats, looks like a gorgeous place to hunt!

[eman375]

Nice.  What part of Idaho?

[renegade19]

 

[gophert]

 

[Wrangler95]

Very nice gobbler,congrats!!

[DirtNap647]

way to go!!!

[slamman]

congrats and nice pictures.

[Crappiepro]

Good Job on a pretty bird!!

[beagler]

Nice!

[ElkTurkMan]

Congrats!

[tomstopper]

Congrats...... 

[surehuntsalot]

congrats on the bird

[Doug]

Nice.  What part of Idaho?

North of Cambridge.  Supposedly it's a very popular area to turkey hunt.  I didn't see a lot of people out, but the weather was kinda crappy, so maybe that was it.

Hoping I can get back out to work on filling my second tag after this week.  If my buddy can take some time off, I'd like to see if we can get him one.

[boomer]

Congrats!!